U.S. Prods Iraq to Stop Arms Going to Syria

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, second from right, prepares to leave Baghdad on Sunday after meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Associated Press

By

Jay Solomon and

Matt Bradley

Updated March 24, 2013 10:13 p.m. ET

Secretary of State John Kerry, on a surprise one-day visit to Baghdad, pressed Iraqi officials Sunday to cut off the flow of Iranian arms to the Syrian government and warned that future American aid to Iraq could be at risk if it doesn't.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's willingness to confront Tehran over its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, U.S. officials said, has emerged as a crucial litmus test for U.S.-Iraqi relations a decade after Washington toppled strongman Saddam Hussein.

The U.S.'s influence in Baghdad, and its leverage over Mr. Maliki, appears to be dwindling as the Obama administration prepares to shrink its diplomatic and security presence in Iraq to around 5,000 people by the end of 2013 from over 16,000.

Iran, meanwhile, has emerged as perhaps Mr. Maliki's closest regional ally as the Shiite-dominant governments in Baghdad and Tehran share a growing alarm about the largely Sunni insurgency that is seeking to overthrow Mr. Assad.

The Obama administration shares these concerns and believes that some of the Syrian rebels have direct links to al Qaeda's leadership in both Pakistan and Iraq. As a result, the U.S. has so far refused to supply arms directly to Mr. Assad's opponents, despite growing pressure from Washington's Middle East allies to do so.

Iraqi analysts said Sunday that the U.S.'s often contradictory position on Syria has undermined Washington's hopes of gaining Mr. Maliki's cooperation.

"What clout have they got? I don't know," said Ghassan Attiyah, an Iraqi political commentator, referring to the U.S.'s leverage over Baghdad. "The presence of Kerry in Baghdad is very vital. The Americans should use their soft power to keep al-Maliki holding the stick in the middle."

Iraq's government offered no public commitment Sunday following Mr. Kerry's visit to more directly challenge Iran. In a potentially telling sign, no Iraqi official appeared alongside the U.S. secretary of state at his Baghdad news conference.

Senior U.S. officials traveling with Mr. Kerry said on Sunday that American intelligence continues to see a steady flow of Iranian airplanes transiting Iraq's airspace for Syria. Iraqi officials say the planes are delivering humanitarian supplies, but U.S. officials alleged that they are carrying military supplies for Mr. Assad's security forces.

Obama administration officials have pressed Baghdad for more than a year to conduct regular inspections of the Iranian planes, but say they have only succeeded twice since last July in gaining Iraq's cooperation.

U.S. officials said Sunday that Iraqi inspectors said they failed to find Iranian arms during either of these inspections.

Mr. Kerry told reporters in Baghdad that Iranian arms supplies are fueling the civil war in Syria and only heightening the potential for the conflict spreading into Iraq.

U.S. lawmakers were also closely monitoring the issue of Iranian over flights and could move to block Washington's assistance to Iraq, which totaled $1.7 billion during the 2012 fiscal year.

"I made it very clear to the prime minister that the over flights from Iran are, in fact, helping to sustain President Assad and his regime," Mr. Kerry said. "I also made it clear to him that there are members of Congress and people in America who are increasingly watching what Iraq is doing."

Iraqi officials and commentators said Mr. Maliki pressed Mr. Kerry for the U.S. to take more aggressive steps to insure that radical Sunni Islamists don't seize power in Damascus.

U.S. and Iraqi counter-terrorism officials have increased joint operations in recent weeks aimed at preventing al Qaeda fighters from crossing the border from Iraq into Syria, and vice versa, said senior U.S. officials.

The Central Intelligence Agency, meanwhile, has ramped up intelligence sharing with moderate factions of the Syrian opposition in an attempt to marginalize the more radical elements. The U.S. has designated one of the Syrian rebel groups, the al-Nusra Front, as a terrorist organization because of its purported ties to al Qaeda.

Still, Iraqi officials said the U.S. actions have done little to assuage Mr. Maliki's fears. In recent weeks, al Qaeda in Iraq, believed to be based in Iraq's majority Sunni provinces, has claimed responsibility for two bombings in Baghdad that killed dozens of Iraqi civilians.

"Maliki will always try to say that what he is doing is trying to defend himself and Iraq from the unintended consequences of Syria," said Mr. Attiyah. "He would like to see from the Americans commitments that they will not let the Islamists in Syria have the upper hand."

Mr. Kerry also pressed Mr. Maliki to do more to assimilate Iraq's Sunni minority into the country's political system, said U.S. officials. The religious sect dominated Baghdad's political system and armed forces under Saddam Hussein. Mr. Kerry specifically pressed Iraq's government to push ahead with two provincial elections in Sunni-majority provinces that Mr. Maliki said he postponed for security reasons. Washington's top diplomat also urged the Iraqi leader to resolve lingering sectarian tensions over the Iraqi constitution, which Sunni politicians refused to support when it was voted into law in 2005.

"Democracy, I would say to our friends in Iraq, is about inclusion and about compromise," Mr. Kerry said. "If the Iraqi democratic experiment is to succeed, all Iraqis must work together so that they can come together as a nation."

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